Written by @Rob.Tharle, CYBERA’s Head of Product 

The desire to top the scourge of fraud and scams really getting momentum all over the world and it is accelerating. 

At the end of May, Brazil joined many countries starting to either allow or force banks and payments firms to share data on confirmed and attempted frauds.  

Some countries are going further, although this is usually on the AML side of things. In these cases, this will often be using PET to prevent it becoming surveillance. 

Let’s look at what the Central Bank of Brazil has decreed. 

Banks and payments institutions should share data on: 

• Frauds and attempted frauds 
• Provide details of the perpetrators where possible 

• Provide descriptions of the frauds 
• Details of the recipients, e.g. the mule details 
• Importantly firms must get the customers consent for this data capture 
• This data sharing is separate to rules on sharing Anti-Money launder and Counter Terrorist Financing data sets 

Data on the perpetrators could include elements such as: 

• Device ID 
• IP addresses 
• Names 
• Emails 

•  phone numbers 

In terms of use of the data, this should be for preventing and detecting payment fraud and preventing mules opening accounts. Firms must share in a reciprocal manner, i.e. you only get data out if you are sharing your data. External firms can be used to do the data sharing, but the data is for the use of the bans and payment firms. This will come into force on 1st November 2023. 

This Central Bank of Brazil initiative follows laws and proposals from many countries to help fight fraud in the last 12 months or so. The key ones are: 

• Australian Fraud Data Exchange 
• Article 83 of the EU’s PSR proposal published last week 
• PayUK’s pilots in data sharing  

• Additional UK data sharing as part of the Governments fraud strategy and enabled by the new DPDI bill   
• MAS in Singapore for AML and CTF data sharing 
• The pilot in the Netherlands using PET or AML 
• Similar requirements under KSA’s SAMA Counter Fraud Framework 

These add to the changes the FINCEN made to 314b in later 2020 on how banks can share data in the US. 

At CYBERA we are fully supportive of these efforts and truly believe data sharing is key to disrupting financial cyber criminals and helping to get funds back to victims. 

Sharing of confirmed fraudsters accounts an wallets can really help other firms to prevent further payments, close mule accounts and prevent opening new ones. As firms get better at sharing these in their domestic markets for fiat, the fraudsters are increasingly moving funds internationally and via crypto, and this will increase as places like the UK make it harder to be a fraudster using he domestic faster payments system. 

As such it is vital that FI’s globally, start to develop their capabilities now to be on the front foot as the regulatory pressure steps up. When done correctly, this reduces fraud attacks and funds in the fraudsters pockets, increases recoveries for victims and improves operational efficiency in FIs. 

About CYBERA  

At  CYBERA  we’re on a mission to stop money laundering and help protect customers from scams and other financial cybercrime. We close gaps that allow cyber criminals to thrive by sharing crime data in real-time with financial institutions, fintech, and crypto exchanges, and coordinating a global response to support customers who have become victims of financial cybercrime.  

CYBERA WATCHLIST™ helps support firms to reduce fraud and money laundering and meet regulatory requirements as part of a holistic fraud and financial crime strategy.  

Financial Institutions (FIs) can check against the CYBERA WATCHLIST™ for confirmed mule accounts when processing payments. For outbound & inbound payments, where there is a match on either IBAN (Account Number & Sort code) or on Name the transaction can be flagged as high risk.  

At account opening and ongoing CDD, email, phone and name can be used to match to CYBERCRIME WATCHLIST™ to reduce opening new mule accounts.  

CYBERA VSR™ further supports by providing users with alerts of any of their accounts reported as mules directly in their dashboard.  

Unlike other data sources, CYBERA is a global solution, so is well placed to support the increasing levels of cross-border real-time payments.